A dress, nearly every day.

Month: April 2010

I know that this isn't a real sailor collar but the flare + the bow just makes me think of one.

I love how the two regular-sized women are studiously ignoring the tiny woman in the box, who, like a zoo animal, is also trying to ignore her captors. This particular pattern seems to be sized for the bigger women; but since the captured one is wearing the same dress, someone must have scaled it down for her, yes?

In my head the captors have found the smaller woman and are on their way to Fleet Week to make money exhibiting her in a freak show at Coney Island, but are having second thoughts. What's your take?

This pattern is from Jen at MOMSPatterns, who is also having a quick sale: Save 25% off your orders with MOMSPatterns Friday, Saturday & Sunday only using coupon code 'mayday'. (Jen offers free shipping to the US & Canada with the purchase of 5 or more patterns, by the way.)

1. I love, love, love the ::facepalm:: of Plaid Girl here. Combined with the "WTF?" expression on Green Stripe Girl, I really, really wish we could see what they are seeing. What could it be? I'm assuming it's some kind of really embarrassing male display behavior, but I'd love to hear your guesses.

For reasons that should be painfully obvious, I have wanted more of this fabric for years. I bought some the moment I saw it, and made a big circle skirt, which I have altered at least a couple of times. But it's quilting cotton, which means it's not especially sturdy, and the skirt was beginning to look a little sad. Which made me more than a little sad. (That's one of the downsides of sewing — even if something you make costs less than the $20 throwaway item from H&M or Target, it costs more in time and emotional investment, so you get madder when it wears out/rips/gets spilled on.)

And unfortunately, with fabric, even if you know the manufacturer's name and the fabric name, you can't rely on the seller knowing either of those pieces of information. So the only thing you can do is hit eBay at regular intervals and think "if I didn't know anything about this fabric, how would I describe it?"

Which is what I did, and now FOUR YARDS are on their merry way to me. Woo! With a bonus Hoo!

Do I know what I will sew with this yet? Not especially. But I know I will love it and hug it and squeeze it and call it George.

"Not Used Except For Pocket" — that may, in fact, be my epitaph. (Wouldn't that look good on a gravestone? It's surprising how much time I spend thinking about my grave marker considering that I intend to be cremated, isn't it?)

Anyway, memento mori schemento mori, look at this pattern! It's lovely (even if the pic is a bit fuzzy). I likes it. And I want to know why someone opened it up and only used the pocket. Imagine how good the other, pocketless dress had to be to be more worth sewing than this one!

This one is on sale from Penny at Antique Dollhouse of Patterns — she's offering 35% of through Sunday (Paypal orders only, though). So you can browse through her site until you find the pattern that's annotated with "Used — No Pocket Piece", right?

Oh, and here's an idea: who wants to start assembling a "found poetry" page on the Vintage Patterns Wiki based on things written on pattern envelopes? With almost 28,000 (!) patterns, there must be a number of interesting notes to choose from!

Question 1: How cute is that bodice? I love the high neck and all those little buttons … sigh. (This button thing has got me bad, and that ain't good.)

Question 2: What the heck is in that box? Unwrapper looks gleeful, looker-on even more so. I think that they have swiped some OTHER girl's box of chocolates, and are planning to eat all the chocolates themselves, then on refilling the box with something hilarious and embarrassing, such as woolen long underwear, thus provoking consternation and discord between the intended recipient and her chocolates-giving beau. But that's just my take. What's yours?

Question 3: Did you know that this pattern is on SALE? Yes, yes it is: 20% with code EARTH DAY, through Friday. And get free shipping when you buy three or more patterns! (From Sandritocat.)

Aren't those gorgeous? I have been thinking a LOT about buttons lately. I mean, more than usual (and far more than "normal" people).

Some of my thoughts:

— I want a big circle skirt, black, where the hem is a four-inch border of grey mother-of-pearl buttons, in a bunch of different sizes. Bonus points if I can lay them out so that they seem to swirl …

— Or, ooh, how about a shirtdress with a button print, with the "buttons" in vertical stripes down the fabric, maybe 5/8" wide, spaced an inch or so apart? This would be lovely in black and white, or red and white, or white with multicolor.

— I want a black t-shirt with a big white four-hole button printed on the front. Ditto a tote bag.

— More fabric, this time with a huge four-hole button print. By "huge" I mean buttons that are orange-sized. Black with white or red buttons, or black with mostly white buttons and a red button every so often for "pop". (For a Heidi dress, naturally.)

This is a new Vogue reproduction pattern (Vogue 1172), and I know, absolutely and without doubt, that I once blogged about the original of this pattern. Can I remember it now? Can I find it now? Is it labeled with any of the hundreds of facetious tags I have used since starting to blog five years ago? No, no, and double no, with a garnish of freshly-ground imported nope.

I vaguely remember that someone else was looking for this pattern, and maybe I was putting out an APB? Possibly? Or maybe it was just me wishing I had an excuse to make a dress that can require up to SEVEN YARDS of fabric to make? No? Doesn't ring a bell?

I do love this pattern, though, so I'm very happy to see it back in production. I just wish I could remember the original number, although I suppose it doesn't make much difference. But wouldn't it be cool if someone (NOT ME) blogged about making two versions, one from the vintage pattern and one from the reproduction? It would be awesome if someone (NOT ME) wanted to take on the challenge … (did I say NOT ME loud enough? I hope so.)

If you remember the original number, oh please have mercy and leave a comment letting me know!